Satan's plan of Deception

A mother told her son that he was not allowed to go swimming that day. However, when he returned home that afternoon his mother noticed that his hair was wet and that he carried under his arm a wet bathing suit.

“Johnny!” his mother scolded, “I told you not to go swimming today.” “I couldn’t help it, Mom. I walked by the lake and it looked so clear and inviting. I was just going to stick my feet in it for a minute, and the water was so warm and felt so good on my legs. I just couldn’t resist!” he said with a big wide smile.

Mom looked at Johnny and said, “One question son, why did you take your bathing suit with you when I had told you that you couldn’t swim today?” “I didn’t trust myself Mom, so I took it with me just in case I was tempted.”

Webster’s Dictionary tells us that temptation is “the act of enticement to do wrong by the promise of pleasure or gain.”

Now isn’t that just like the Devil, getting us to do something wrong by promising us something good?

Some people look at Satan that way today. The Devil made me do it is an adage many people use as a mantra.

I believe that this is a false view of Satan and what he is about. The believer in Christ is never powerless before Satan but is powerful because of who is in us.

Last week we talked about Satan and his origin. We went over some basic information about Satan and we showed the Scripture teaches that he is the true enemy of the believer of Christ.

We learned that he was created, and was perfect and beautiful at one time.
Because of his arrogance he fell from grace and wanted to make himself like God.

We determined from the Bible that Satan is on the earth today. He has been kicked out of Heaven and is here until God throws him into Hell for eternity.

While he is our adversary we need to prepare to do battle with him.

Today we will look at many Scripture references. Because of that I printed them off for you to look at so you will not have to flip back and forth.

1 Peter 5: 8-9
8 Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

Experts say that a lion will roar to bait prey into a trap.

A lion will go out alone in front of the trapped prey and roar to scare the animal into the pride of lions waiting behind him.

I believe this is the type of cunning that Satan has.

What is unbelievable is that the Bible gives us all the information that we need to know about his schemes and what he is trying to do.

This morning and next week, We are going to talk about two main strategies of Satan and then break those into smaller categories.

This morning we will talk specifically about how Satan is here to Deceive people –last week we learned that there is no truth is Satan - he is a liar and has no truth.

He wants to deceive you, just sit back and don’t think much about your faith or consider anything critically.

Satan wants you to sit back and not think too much about your faith.

He wants you to just show up on Sunday and go through the motions and
2nd Satan is out to attack us.

He is here to Deceive and Attack us.

If he cant deceive you then he will attack you and try to demoralize God’s people.

I. Satan deceives through…

1) Satan Deceives through False philosophies.

Colossians 2:8
See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.

Satan deceives men by trying to entice people to believe in foolish philosophies of man.

In our world this would the talk show-Dr. Phil – Oprah Winfrey – New Age psycho babble of today.

This becomes evident with slogans like:

Have confidence in yourself - We should never say that –
As Christians we don’t have confidence in our selves – We have confidence in Christ.

The human heart can be full of deceipt and we should never forget that – we have confidence in Jesus

Also, we should never be caught telling people – You have the right to be happy.
Now you have the right to be happy in Christ but that doesn’t mean – it is all about my happiness.

I hear parents say – I need my time and I need my space.

I worked with a lady at a school who would drop her kids off at day care, leave school go to workout and then many times go out with the other ladies at school.

She would not see her son until 8pm and basically put him to bed and not have anything to do with him and what she told me was - I need ME time, I have to be happy or I would not be a good mother.

I work with men that basically have nothing to do with their kids because they are so caught up in their career that they really don’t care.

They are about the false philosophy of this age that I must get ahead with my career and my contribution to this family is the income.

That is also a false philosophy that Satan is serving up to our culture in huge doses and he is taking captive an entire generation of little children because the fathers have abdicated spiritual responsibility of teaching their kids about Jesus and many mothers are not mothering their children.

The results are disastrous and we are reaping the whirlwind today and I am afraid to tell you folks that this great country that we love and the way of life that we live is in peril in large part because of this philosophy of ME FIRST.

2) Satan Deceives through False religions

1 Corinthians 10:20
No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God,
and I do not want you to be participants with demons.


In the villages of Northern India a missionary was preaching in a bazaar. As he closed, a Muslim gentleman came up and said, "You must admit we have one thing you have not, and it is better than anything you have."
The missionary smiled and said, "I should be pleased to hear what it is."
The Muslim said, "You know when we go to Mecca we at least find a coffin. But when you Christians go to Jerusalem, which is your Mecca, you find nothing but an empty grave."
But the missionary just smiled and said, "That is just the difference. Mohammed is dead; Mohammed is in the coffin. And false systems of religion and philosophy are in their coffins, but Jesus Christ, whose kingdom is to include all nations and kindreds and tribes, is not here; He is risen. And all power in heaven and on earth is given unto Him. That is our hope."
Satan has done his best to provide man with false systems of religion and philosophy.

Much of these false systems are operating here and now in our own community.

I don’t want you to think that these falsehoods do not find a home right here in our little town.

Think about how some of the false philosophies of self-help have corrupted people even around here.

We have become a consumer driven society that has put man in the center.

Here is the way to know if a system or philosophy is false-

DOES THAT SYSTEM EXALT GOD OR DOES IT EXALT MAN

GOD IS TO BE EXALTED IN ALL THINGS – IT IS GOD FIRST AND THEN ME.

I LOVE THE ATTITUDE OF JOHN THE BAPTIST – I MUST DECREASE AND HE MUST INCREASE

THAT SHOULD BE OUR LIFE MANTRA – HOW WE SEE THE WORLD –

Satan would like nothing better than to infiltrate God’s people and make us selfish and create a church that fits my own wants and needs.

When we come here into this house of worship it should be about one thing and that is the celebration of God as Sovereriegn of the universe and the Enthronement of Jesus.

We serve a risen Savior that is not in the Grave but is alive and wants to be active in your life.


3) Satan deceives through False ministers.

2 Corinthians 11:14-15
And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.

Satan is also deceiving people through charismatic teachers that spew false doctrine and then scandalize people with their terrible life.

Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians that Satan can pose as an angel of light

Satan’s minions can also pose as servants of righteousness
IN our time we have seen an explosion of false teachers and religious leaders.

You can see folks like Joel Osteen that have totally ripped the Cross and Sinners guilt from the Gospel message of salvation.

You have these ministers of unrightousness going on CNN and telling folks that all you have to do is live right and God will give you the desires of YOUR heart.

I listened to one preacher on Trinity Broadcast Network a few weeks ago give a lesson on how God helped him purchase 2 leer jets.

I tend to remember a place in Luke’s Gospel when John the Baptist – a true minister – told people that if you have two cloaks to share one with the poor.

You see these ministers claim to be about Christ and His kingdom but then teach things totally contradictory to God’s word.

4) Satan deceives through False doctrine.

1 John 2:18
Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour.


In Matthew 24: 24, Jesus provides a stern warning that
"false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect--if that were possible..."

In the old "To Tell the Truth" game show, you had to question three contestants to determine the true identity of the person who would then stand up to be recognized. Unfortunately, if you're looking for the true Jesus these days, you have more than three "contestants". The cults and false religions of the day have produced some such as these --

Jesus #1: Jesus was Michael the archangel, the first being created by Jehovah God, "a god" but not Almighty God, was invisibly raised from the dead as a "spirit being" and has already invisibly returned to earth.

Jesus #2: Jesus was the "spirit brother" of Lucifer, a man who evolved to godhood and was married to more than one woman while on this earth.

Jesus #3: This is a Jesus who never came in the flesh, but is simply a divine idea or principle inherent in every person.

Jesus #4: Jesus is one of many great prophets but has since been superseded by a greater prophet. He did live a sinless life but was not crucified nor did he die to pay the penalty for anyone's sins.

All of the above are the creations of men although they bear the same name as the true Jesus revealed in the Holy Scriptures.

However, as eternally dangerous as all of the above "Jesuses" are, there may be some that are even more dangerous.

There are many people, some even sitting in church week after week, who have created a Jesus in their own minds with whom they are comfortable.
He may be a Jesus that is all "love" but no judgment. He may be a Jesus that tolerates all lifestyles and life choices even though they conflict with His Word. But, he is not the true Jesus revealed in the entirety of God's Word.

In 2 Corinthians 11: 4, the apostle Paul warned the believers at Corinth, "For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough."

There are other Jesuses, other spirits and other gospels.

Are you "putting up" with a false Jesus, one that cannot save?

At one point while Jesus was walking this earth, He turned to His disciple Peter, and asked, "Who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, answered boldly, "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God."

There is only One Jesus who is God in the flesh, only One who died on the cross for your sins, only One who rose physically from the dead and is alive forevermore, only One who sets you free from the bondage of sin, only One who grants eternal life to those who believe.

We are dealing with a time when religion is coming more and more man-centered and less and less about God.

We are seeing a gospel preached that puts man at the center and takes God out of the center.

We need to understand that if it weren’t for grace and God’s actions first, there would be no faith or obedience.

In other words, God is the very author of our faith, God is the center.

Religion has taken a very dangerous man-centered approach.

Christianity itself because muddled and corrupted when we preach man-centered Gospel that does not accept that GRACE is the sole means to God.

God’s ACTS first and that is what we need to remember.

5) Satan Deceives through False disciples.

Matthew 13:24-30
Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’ “ ‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ “ ‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’ “

Do you notice in this passage that Jesus is referring to the Church – we walk around and we fret about sinful and hypocritical people in the Church.

How many times have you heard people say, I don’t want to go to that church because they are hypocrites!

Well Jesus told us it would be that way – that is not a legitimate excuse for us.

The enemy – SATAN – uses that as his plan. The enemy has planted weeds even within the Church - Jesus tells us that even within the church there will be evil people that are there to serve Satan and not God.

Consider that sitting in a briar patch makes you no more a briar than sitting in a Church on Sunday makes you a follower of Jesus.

For one to please God they need a heart Transformation – they need a relationship with Jesus Christ.

I once heard the story about a small village in Africa where the water was supplied by a well in the middle of the town.

One day, the water from the well grew stale and diseased, and many people got sick. But they weren’t sure why.

They tried boiling the water (to no avail).

They cleaned out their hot water boilers and they boiled the water again, but nothing worked.

Then specialists from the UN came in and inspected the well. They found that the pump was cracked and that surface water was seeping in and contaminating the supply.

When they installed a new pump, the water was again pure and diseases stopped.

In order for the water to be pure, something had to change in the heart of the well.
The pump needed to be changed. Then the water became clean.

So also - in us - something has to change in our hearts, or our deeds will always be tainted.

We have to be true disciples with a heart transplant

6) Satan Deceives through False morals.

2 Thessalonians 2:7-12
For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not
believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.

What a powerful passage – Satan will display a deception through false miracles.

I always think about the magicians of Egypt that tried to counter Moses miracles with the black arts of Egypt.

This type of deception has been around a long time.

A minister once told his congregation that there were 700 different sins. That afternoon he received 46 requests for the list.
Everybody wanted to know what they were missing out on!

It is something in our human nature to cling to the sensational. Sometimes we cant just be ok with the sufficiency of Scripture.

We want bang and pop instead of thus says the Lord. If anyone comes along and could even work miracles we still defer to the word of God.
If they say one iota that is different from that which is written they should be anathema.

Conclusion:

What do we do about all of this?

There was a set of movies that came out a few years ago that Allison absolutely hated but I loved because I saw a parable at work in these movies.

The movie was called the Matrix- Now my theological mind got to turning when I watched this movie and let me use this example to help you see how we should see the world.

Supposedly aliens or robots or something had taken over the earth and they had put humans into some type of deep coma or sleep and used human beings as their energy source to survive.

The programmed these sleeping humans to dream these programmed thoughts that they were really living with a job family etc when in reality they were in a coma being used for fuel.
Some of these humans woke up the reality that they were really hooked up and came out of the coma and disconnected from this Matrix and fought against these robots or aliens.

The point I am making is this – many people are walking around asleep – they are deceived – they see what is on TV as the reality – they see this fallen world with its greed and selfishness as the reality.

No – the reality is Jesus and His kingdom – He has called you to disconnect from the deception and wake up to reality.

Paul phrased it as WAKE UP O SLEEPER –

So practically how do you wake up:
1) Turn off the TV

Simple – enough said turn off the conduit of garbage

2) Now with the extra time that you just gained by turning off the TV we can pick up our Bibles and plug into the life giving, all sufficient word of God.

This book has the very words of life and hope and it will very hard for Satan to deceive us or pull the wool over our eyes if we are engaged with God’s Holy Word.

3) Develop a relationship of God that is based on prayer.
This spiritual battle will be one waged on your knees.

We should spend time in prayer – praying for each other, for our country, for our children.
4) For those of you that have children my challenge would be this family devotional time.

Make sure that every night you take out God’s word and share a few verses of life with your children- get down and pray with them.
Pray over them – are you praying today for God to prepare for them a godly mate – are you praying that they will be followers of Jesus –

I would say these are eternal priorities that take precedence over everything else.

INVITE:

If you are here today and you are not a Christian – we ask that you consider God’s gracious act

The cross is God’s action of Divine Love for you – what will you do? Jesus died for you so what will you do with God’ Son.

I would consider that question carefully today because God is not mocked and is not one to be trifled with